Boris urges world to ‘pull together’ as ‘no one country can find coronavirus vaccine alone’

Boris Johnson has said the world must ‘pull together’ and share expertise so that a coronavirus vaccine can be developed as fast as possible.

Speaking in a pre-recorded message for the Coronavirus Global Response International Pledging Conference, the Prime Minister emphasised how ‘developing and mass producing a vaccine’ is the only way to protect against further spread of Covid-19.

He said: ‘In our own countries we’ve taken extraordinary measures asking our people to accept sweeping restrictions on their way of life. By doing so, we’ve formed a human shield around our health systems enabling our heroic health workers to save many lives, including my own.

‘But the truth is that none of us can succeed alone to win this battle. We must work together to build an impregnable shield around all our people and that can only be achieved by developing and mass producing a vaccine.

‘The more we pull together and share our expertise the faster our scientists will succeed.’

Johnson added that finding the vaccine is the ‘most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes’, describing it as ‘humanity against this virus’.

He continued: ‘Countries and pharmaceutical companies will need to work together with an approach that defies the usual ways of operating. We’ll need innovative partnerships like the one between AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

‘And we’ll need a truly global effort because no one country and no one pharmaceutical company will be able to do this alone.

‘The race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes. It’s humanity against this virus. We’re in this together and together we will prevail.’

The University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZenenca announced their partnership on Thursday. Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, described the alliance as a ‘major force in the struggle against pandemics’.

Human trials of the vaccine, developed by the University’s Jenner Institute, began last week after hundreds of people volunteered to be a part of the study. The research has received £20,000,000 in Government funding.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir John said he hoped that some results from a human trial of the vaccine would be available by the middle of June.

The Coronavirus Global Response International Pledging Conference, hosted by the European Union, aimed to raise €7,500,000,000 for the world response to Covid-19. The money will go towards the development and deployment of diagnostics, treatments and vaccines against the virus across the globe.

The UK has pledged £388,000,000 in aid funding for research into tests, treatments and vaccines, which is part of a £744,000,000 commitment to help end the pandemic and support the global economy.

Johnson was discharged from St Thomas’ Hospital, in London, less than a month ago, after battling Covid-19 in intensive care. Speaking out about his experiences over the weekend, he told how doctors had prepared for his death.

The PM said he was being given ‘litres and litres of oxygen’ as his health continued to fail. He later told The Sun on Sunday that thoughts of his then-unborn son Wilfred, who arrived on April 29, kept him going in the ICU. He said: ‘We’ve all got a lot to live for, a lot to do, and I won’t hide it from you, I was thinking about that, yes.’

Johnson and partner Carrie Symonds later announced that Wilfred had been given the middle name Nicholas as a tribute to specialists Dr Nicholas Price and Professor Nicholas Hart, who both treated the PM while he was in intensive care.

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